Best Of
Re: Tour guides
Our tour director for Botswana, Zambia and SA sent us our group photo. In fact, those who were interested per his suggestion uploaded the app PhotoCircle. It was quite easy because while on the trip, everyone could upload their wonderful photos and they could be shared instantly within the entire group. I don’t understand everything about PhotoCircle but the basics worked with the pics I wanted to share.
Re: Portrait of India questions! Luggage, water, etc
Talk to your travel doctor who knows your health records and consult the. CDC. Don’t rely on strangers for these decisions.
British
Re: Tip for Elegant SA
Just finishing up SA. We brought a small amount of Rand - about $200 US dollars worth - and it was very very handy. You don't need to trip anyone on Tauck except your tour director, they take care of everything. But if you add on your own arranged tours before or after, the cash is handy for that. We also used if for small trinket souvenir purchases,
water and mints at the airport, stuff like that where you don't want to have to take our your credit card, the amount is so low. In Johannesburg we were taken to an outdoor market where local vendors have their tent shops with their handmade goods, you definitely needed the Rand for that.
Re: Rhine River cruise August-September, 2024
Tauck doesn't follow nor react to posts on the forums. If you want to recognize them, you'll need to write a letter or email to Guest Services.
AlanS
Re: When to go and flights for Jordan/Egypt tour
We did the Jordan & Egypt small group this year in February. It was a fantastic time of the year to travel. Most of the time we were in long sleeves and even wore a jacket early in the morning or evening. (see attached photo of our group) We flew business class on British Airways through Heathrow. Yes, Heathrow can be challenging but we had a long layover. We landed in Amman after midnight and our Tauck escort was waiting for us and helped us get our VISA quickly. Our daughter had the same concerns about us flying over there and tracked our flight. (see attached Flight Aware) We all thought it was interesting to see how the pilots avoided questionable air space. We felt safe the entire time we were traveling through Jordan and Egypt. Security is extremely tight at all of the hotels. Our coach would pull up at our hotel and be stopped at the hotel's gate. A dog would walk around our coach and check it out before we could proceed onto the property. At the hotels, our luggage would go through an x-ray machine and we were also screened like TSA would do at an airport in the US. We had an armed guard with us as we travelled but we never had an issue anywhere. It was a fabulous trip!!!
TNVFL
Re: River Cruise Laundry Service
I have done laundry in the sink daily on several river cruises, without using a sink stopper. (I bring my own bar soap.)
MCD
Re: Booking airfare
When I bought my own rooms I would call the hotel to make sure that I was booking the same category room as Tauck … the ‘on your own room’ probably will not come with breakfast unless you pay for that option. And, all hotels have some ‘bad’ rooms that they normally assign to airline crews, but if you succeed in getting an inexpensive room you will sometimes get what you paid for. Ultimately, I decided the savings was not worth the bother, and occasionally the room is a big surprise. We book a tour where almost every detail is arranged. Why screw it up with complications?
Sealord
Re: Tour guides
On my Riverboat cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam one of the tour guide was knowledgeable but dry as unbuttered toast. One of the tour guides was funny as heck. So what my solution was I switched channels on my VOX and listened in to the funny one, Easy Peary !
RGM2
Re: Whisky on Day 2 England, Scotland and Wales tour.
Reminds me of a story:
When my kids were young, we went to Colonial Williamsburg and spent a day at Busch Gardens. At the end of the day, we went on the tour of the Budweiser brewery. At the end, they had tastings. My wife wasn't a beer drinker, so it was just me. She asked me how the beer was. I said, "Budweiser is just as bad fresh as it is in the can."
BKMD